PYO Strawberries and Apples in Bacchus Marsh

One weekend, we decided to go Pick your own fruit as it was a good weather and we realized that our Little Miss haven't experience that yet. So we decided to go to Bacchus Marsh as it is closer to our place and we chose to go to Naturipe Orchard (http://www.naturipe.com.au/) as they have strawberries and apples ready for picking.

I am so excited for our Little Miss as she loves eating fruits so I thought she might enjoy this activity. We arrived at Naturipe just before noon and we can see quite a number of people enjoying the picking already. It doesn't look crowded so it's a good thing. Another good thing in Naturipe is they didn't have entrance fee which some farms have. You ask for containers and off you go picking and just pay for what you pick afterwards.

Little Miss was delighted to see all those strawberries! She was so excited and happy she started to do picking and eating straight away! Oooppss, maybe not a good idea to let her eat straight from picking but how can you stop a drooling 2yr old? Lucky I got a water bottle with me so I was able to wash the strawberries a bit. Strawberries are very sweet, they are the smaller types which I prefer.

 Look at her! What a happy girl :) 

My Favorite photo of the day!

After she fills her tummy with the strawberries, we headed to the apples area which is not far from where the strawberries are (they have pink lady apples btw). She enjoyed the apples too but not more than the strawberries. 

This is a good activity when you have kids and the weather is good. You'll probably spend 2~3 hrs in the orchard. We paid just over $20 for what we picked and I think it's a good value for money activity for the family. 

Afterwards, we went to find a place to have lunch and ended up at the courthouse hotel (http://www.courthousehotelbm.com.au/). It's tucked into an alley just in the town centre and boy, what a great place to eat. Good service and great food! Although we only had the calamari and the potato wedges to share, we are very happy with the meal so it's a must try when you head up to bacchus marsh.

Here's a pic of that calamari to get you convinced!

Yum!!!

DIY Feature Wall using Stikwood Reclaimed Wood in Sierra Silver

Hello hello! In case you've been reading silently, you would have noticed that I haven't been posting in here for a while. Anyway, today I've got something to write about and I'm very excited to share it with everybody.

Let me start off by saying, I've been quite obsessed with looking at pinterest to get ideas/inspirations for home designs and I really like those reclaimed wood feature walls. So I started researching if I can do it in my house. A lot of blogs have the tutorial for doing wood planks feature wall but with a toddler and a full time job, I don't think I can tackle a total DIY (cutting the wood planks ,painting, nailing it, etc) then I chance upon a product called Stikwood which got me excited because it is a pre-cut reclaimed wood with adhesive already so you just need to peel and stick it to your wall! But then when I checked, it's from the US and they don't have a retailer here in Australia. I really like the idea of how easy it is to install so I emailed to asked about how to get it here in Australia. Well, the reply was they do international shipping which is good but what about the price considering it will come from the US + shipment.

To make the long story short, I talked to the husband about it and he quite like the idea as well so after months of pondering, we decided to order and just try for a small wall in our house. I'll say the price is fair for $14usd/sqft (that's for Sierra Silver, they do have some other types which is just $10usd/sqft) except you have to pay for the shipment which makes it a bit costly in the end. But don't get me wrong, the end result is all worth it! It made such a great impact in our wall that we might order again if the budget permits.

Okay so let me show you what I'm talking about and I hope you'll like it too.

So, that's the husband doing all the stuff. Here are the steps we did (WE - meaning him and me telling him what to do, haha)

1. Set the planks on the floor in order to see the pattern that you want. The planks comes in different sizes so it's like doing a puzzle. It's easier to do this first than putting it straight to the wall.

This is what it looks like on the floor

2. We prepared the wall surface by cleaning it with sugar soap to get rid of the dust and dirt to ensure good adhesion. Dry the wall before sticking the planks.

3. Then we started peeling and sticking! The husband made a line in the middle of the wall area to know where to align the planks and off we go.

It's really fast and easy except when we reached the bottom part then it gets a bit slow as he needs to ensure the alignment so he has to cut some of the pieces first and make a cut-out for the switch port as well. We decided to put trimmings because there's a switch port on the wall and we put some on the sides and top and bottom to balance it up. You don't have to do this as it is already pretty as it is but it makes it a bit more neat when we put the trimmings/molding.

And the end result! Tsaran!!!!

I think it's really pretty! We used around 20sqft of stikwood for that wall. I can't believe how it transformed the look even if the wall is not too big. Of course I have to tidy up the kitchen for the final photo opt, haha.

P.S. So that wall in the dining area with the clock needs something as it looks bare. That's for another future project :)

Cheers,

Ana

First Cinema Experience for a 2YO

Last sunday, we decided to test the waters if alyana can watch a full length movie in the cinema already. Before she came, me and darling hubby are frequent cinema goers. We just love watching movies and when Alyana came of course we can't do it anymore.

We've already practice at home quite a few times. She can watch a full length movie at home with a little distraction like sometimes running into the kitchen to ask for food from mummy :). She have watched Monster, Monster University, Hotel Transylvania 1&2 and some dragon movie and she seems okay (okay means sitting and actually watching the movie most of the time) that's why I decided it's time for a cinema experience for her.  Just in time as Village cinema is offering a 4 week Disney Movie reruns! So I coaxed the daddy, and he's happy to go along with it.

First up is Beauty and the Beast. She's familiar with this one as I've read her the book already so I guess it's a good choice for her first time experience. The day came and she was so excited and we are too! It also helps that village cinema have activities ready for the kids while waiting for the movie. They have set-up a table where kids can colour beauty and the beast drawings so all the kids are pretty happy and there's even a "princess" who fetched us from the lobby to the cinema.

Alyana outside the cinema

Inside the cinema, before the movie starts, they called up the names of the kids who did the colouring and gave them a prize. Alyana was so excited because she felt like a winner.

 Best in colouring! lol

Look how excited she is!

So everything went smoothly. She's well behaved and she enjoyed the film (and the popcorn!). She's now looking forward to the next weekend where we'll be watching Aladdin.

We are happy too, we reclaimed our watching movies in the cinema experience after 2.8yrs!!! But it goes to say that from now on we can only watch Rated G movies, but I guess as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers hahaha.

So when did you start bringing your kid/s to the cinema? When do you think they'll be ready? As for me, it depends for every child, try it at home first before doing it straight to the cinema as we all don't want a tantrum happening in the middle of the movie :).

Lightings (Down Lights and Pendant Lights)

So another big priority project that we're saving for a while is the Down Lights installation. We feel like having good lightings in your house will make the house more appealing.

Finally we got enough funds to pursue it so the research begins of what lights will work and since we're installing some in the kitchen area, I thought it's best to put pendant lights above  the kitchen island as well.

Deciding for the the kind of down lights wasn't so hard for us since we know somebody who's a distributor of LED downlights so we got it for a cheaper price and we got the latest model which are dimmable and changed into 3 colours (white/yellow and the combination of both). 

The real dilemma was choosing the pendant lights. I spent a lot of time browsing the internet about pendant lights, I got obsessed with it actually, haha. Pin a lot of design from pinterest until I found  the Croft 1 Pendant Light from Beacon Lighting. You see, these colours (Gray, white and Mint Green) matched the colour design in our kitchen so upon seeing the photo of Croft 1 Pendant Light, I knew my search is over. I found what I'm looking for. I gotta have these lights!

Found this image @ http://www.beaconlighting.com.au/ 

How pretty are these?????

After convincing the hubby (He wouldn't go with the tri-colour). He's a bit conservative than I am but I really believed these tri-colour pendant will work in our kitchen. In the end he gave up and let me have what I want and the result? It is amazing! He's happy and even complemented me for going bold using Tri-colour pendant lights.

Pardon the mess, just concentrate on the lights, the downlights are beautiful too. I really think I did the right decision on this one. I love it! Hope you do too. So I'll say, don't be afraid to go a bit bold if you think it will work!

That Red Flowering Tree (Crepe Myrtle)

Found this very pretty tree near my husband's workplace, apparently it's called Crepe Myrtle and because it's pretty, it's a reason for a photo opt! I hope to plant this in our front yard one day. I currently have bottle brush tree in there but was thinking of changing it to a maple tree and now a crepe myrtle,lol.

Plantation Shutters for the windows

The very first "big" project we did were the plantation shutters installations. Mind you, they can get pretty expensive (that's why it's considered as "big")  so we just opt on doing it on selected areas. We chose to do this first since it will look good especially on the area where it is expose to the road, hence it will improve the house's curb appeal and also it will help a lot in the insulation of the house.

Here are the photos,  I'm showing you just part of it,  We got these shutters at a competitive price after shopping around and we are very happy with the outcome. http://www.3ablinds.com.au/plantation-shutters/

Study Area (It gave privacy and added appeal)

Additional Curb Appeal 

Picture Frames Wall Gallery

We bought a house about a year ago and we are just starting to do what we call "Our very own house Projects". We started simple and slow since we have to consider our budgets. So let me share with you what has been done so far. You might get an idea/inspiration for your very own projects.

The first project I did was the wall picture galleries for the lounge room and master bedroom. For the master bedroom, I bought cheap picture frames from ebay and did my own set-up but for the lounge room, I got a picture frame wall gallery set also from ebay as it is more practical to do so. Here it is, it's looking pretty cool :)

                                                         Our Bedroom Wall Gallery

 This is how it turned out in the lounge room. I used black and white photos as I'm going with a black /white /neutral theme for this area.